Episode 577: Backloaded Contracts and Listener Emails
Date November 19, 2014 Summary Ben and Sam banter about non-revelatory rumors and new details about the Giancarlo Stanton deal, then answer listener emails about front-office roles, offensive eras, and more. Topics * Atlanta Braves & split front-office roles * Winter meetings and offseason news cycle * Catcher framing and MVP voting * Offensive performance of different position groups * Pitcher vs. hitter friendly eras Intro The OC sound clip Outro Episode outtake sound clip Banter * Non-revelatory rumors: Ben & Sam pronounce revelatory differently and are surprised that there are conflicting pronunciation guides online. * Non-revelatory rumors: Ken Rosenthal tweeted that the Orioles 'may consider moving Bud Norris'. Ben and Sam agree that has no substance. Other terms discussed are 'checking in', 'interested', and 'has established contact'. * Episode 575 follow-up: About 2/3 of the value of Giancarlo Stanton's contract is after the year 5 op-out. Email Questions * Roger: "This offseason the Atlanta Braves have fired their GM Frank Wren and have in his place instituted a team of John Hart, President of Baseball Operations and John Coppolella, Assistant GM. As I see the situation the Braves have one person in charge of the business tasks of a GM (contract and trade talks, press conferences, etc.) and one person in charge of the stat or quant side of baseball (sabermetrics, player evaluation, etc). What are your opinions on this model and do you see other teams possibly doing this or could this be the Braves way of mentoring Coppolella as they do not believe he is ready to handle all of the duties of a GM?" * Matt: "How many bigger days than Monday do you think the offseason has in store? We know the winter meetings days will all be bigger, right? Even if it's mostly rumor there'll be so much buzz that those are guaranteed. But, I'm casting my memory back to last winter and it seems to me the moves all came in bunches. There would be a few days in which seven or ten moves of note happened then dry stretches. So, how many total days see more impactful moves than Monday's between now and spring training?" * John: "I have a question about pitch framing. If the added value from pitch framing is as high as some of the studies think it is, then how can one justify voting for an MVP candidate who is not a catcher?" * Eric: "It's acknowledged that we are in a pitcher friendly era however these things tend to be cyclical. In what year do you predict we'll be next in a hitter friendly era?" Play Index * The segment is based on a query using position splits that was sent to Sam by Matt Trueblood. * Sam looks at the tOPS+ of different position groups. Offensive positions are 1B, 3B, LF, RF, DH, and PH. Defensive positions are C, 2B, SS, and CF. * Each year for the last four years offensive positions have had the lowest tOPS+ in the last 50 years. That means that relative to MLB as a whole, players at offensive positions are hitting worse compared to the rest of the league than they have historically. * Defensive positions are also hitting better than ever relative to the rest of the league. Notes * Ben, on his pronunciation of revelatory, "I won't be pronunciation shamed by the first syllable emphasizers." * Sam says that it might "be Loria's greatest con yet" that he was able to get Stanton to backload the contract. He adds, "If the Marlins want to make Stanton miserable no team in baseball is in a better position to make their best player miserable than the Marlins are." * Sam thinks that in the long term more front offices will have a more even distribution of power. * Ben guesses that pitcher and hitter friendly eras cycle about every 10 years. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 577: Backloaded Contracts and Listener Emails * MLB front offices load up on GMs by Bob Nightengale Category:Email Episodes Category:Episodes Category:Non-Revelatory Rumors